Hello guys, In my previous article, we discussed what mass spectrometry is, now we are to look at what the device used in mass spectrometry looks like.
Some features of the mass spectrometer are; the vaporization chamber, ionization chamber, electric and magnetic field and the detector.
The mass spectrometer can be used to determine the number of isotopes an element has. Let's consider how it works:
The sample to be tested is first put in the vaporization chamber where it is converted to the gaseous state. The gaseous form of the sample moves into the ionization chamber where it is bombarded with high energy electrons to form positive ions.
The positive ions are then attracted by the negative electric plate and deflected by the magnetic field into the detector.
The detector displays graph of bars on the screen. The number of bars illustrates the number of isotopes the element has.